Deal Expands the Company’s Offerings for Energy Clients; Adds New Fee Business to Portfolio

TULSA, Okla., Jan. 14, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BOK Financial (NASDAQ:BOKF) announced today that it has signed an asset purchase agreement with E-Spectrum Advisors, a boutique energy investment banking firm based in Dallas. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

E-Spectrum Advisors offers a broad range of oil and natural gas property sales and strategic advisory services to clients and has closed more than 150 transactions with an aggregate value of more than $10 billion since 1997.

“Despite the current commodities downturn, we see significant opportunity in the energy industry,” says Stacy Kymes, executive vice president for Corporate Banking at BOK Financial. “The E-Spectrum Advisors team has become a trusted advisor to exploration and production companies throughout our footprint, helping them to maximize value by buying, selling and optimizing property sets. With that expertise under the BOK Financial umbrella, we now bring a complete banking solution to our energy customers, including traditional banking services, acquisition and divestiture advisory, and derivatives risk management. We believe this is a potent combination and will enable us to realize significant value for our customers in the coming years.”

Coy Gallatin, managing director at E-Spectrum Advisors, will join BOK Financial as executive director of Energy Banking. He will report to Stacy Kymes and will oversee all of BOK Financial’s energy industry activities.

“BOK Financial and E-Spectrum Advisors are already closely aligned and bringing the two organizations together is a smart strategic move. We share many clients and have a similar perspective on the significant long term opportunities in the U.S. energy industry,” said Gallatin. “Together, we have a full suite of products and services to support the industry, and we believe that the current commodities environment will provide us many opportunities to collectively add value for our clients.”

Jim Benson is founding partner of the private equity firm Energy Spectrum, which is selling the investment banking arm of the company, E-Spectrum, to BOK Financial.

“All of us at Energy Spectrum are extremely pleased to work with BOK Financial in selling them our advisory business, E-Spectrum Advisors,” said Benson. “We believe that the complementary services and synergies for E-Spectrum will be enhanced under the BOK Financial platform, and the existing team will continue to provide quality M&A advisory services in a seamless transaction. We also believe that BOK Financial will continue the legacy of E-Spectrum by providing the highest level of service and integrity within the advisory business.”

BOK Financial Corporation is a $31 billion regional financial services company based in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The Company's stock is publicly traded on NASDAQ under the Global Select market listings (symbol: BOKF). BOK Financial's holdings include BOKF, NA, BOSC, Inc. and The Milestone Group, Inc. BOKF, NA operates TransFund, Cavanal Hill Investment Management and seven banking divisions: Bank of Albuquerque, Bank of Arizona, Bank of Arkansas, Bank of Kansas City, Bank of Oklahoma, Bank of Texas and Colorado State Bank and Trust. Through its subsidiaries, the Company provides commercial and consumer banking, investment and trust services, mortgage origination and servicing, and an electronic funds transfer network. For more information, visit www.bokf.com.

About E-Spectrum Advisors

E-Spectrum Advisors was founded in 1997 to provide high-quality, focused oil and gas property sales and advisory services to energy companies focused on the upstream oil and gas sector. Since 1997, E-Spectrum Advisors has closed more than 150 transactions with a total aggregate transaction value exceeding $10 billion.

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains forward-looking statements that are based on management's beliefs, assumptions, current expectations, estimates and projections about BOK Financial, the financial services industry and the economy generally. Words such as “anticipates,” “believes,” “estimates,” “expects,” “forecasts,” “plans,” “projects,” variations of such words and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. Management judgments relating to and discussion of the provision and allowance for credit losses involve judgments as to future events and are inherently forward-looking statements. Assessments that BOK Financial's acquisitions and other growth endeavors will be profitable are necessary statements of belief as to the outcome of future events based in part on information provided by others which BOK Financial has not independently verified. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve certain risks, uncertainties, and assumptions which are difficult to predict with regard to timing, extent, likelihood and degree of occurrence. Therefore, actual results and outcomes may materially differ from what is expected, implied or forecasted in such forward-looking statements. Internal and external factors that might cause such a difference include, but are not limited to (1) the ability to fully realize expected cost savings from mergers within the expected time frames, (2) the ability of other companies on which BOK Financial relies to provide goods and services in a timely and accurate manner, (3) changes in interest rates and interest rate relationships, (4) demand for products and services, (5) the degree of competition by traditional and nontraditional competitors, (6) changes in banking regulations, tax laws, prices, levies and assessments, (7) the impact of technological advances and (8) trends in consumer behavior as well as their ability to repay loans. BOK Financial and its affiliates undertake no obligation to update, amend or clarify forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

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